A day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to travel to Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a senior Israeli official said, "the situation now is that even the Russians don't want an Iranian presence in Syria."
The two-day visit to Russia is another in a series of meetings between the two leaders over the past two years, focused on diplomatic and military coordination between Israel and Russia in light of the latter's military involvement in the civil war in Syria, Israel's northern neighbor.
An official in the Prime Minister's Office said Saturday that the purpose of the upcoming meeting was to "discuss developments in the region," particularly Syrian President Bashar Assad's steady advance toward retaking large portions of the country and Israel's vehement opposition to Iranian efforts to establish a military presence there.
Meanwhile, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon addressed the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, warning that the Iranians were trying to turn Syria into the "largest military base in the world."
Citing classified information he had obtained, Danon revealed that "today, there are some 82,000 fighters operating in Syria under Iranian command."
He said the fighters include 60,000 Syrians, 9,000 members of Hezbollah, 3,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guard members and "10,000 members of violent Shiite militias recruited from across the Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
The figures could not be independently confirmed, but Danon said the Iranians "speak about 100,000 troops under their control in Syria."
In addition, he said, Iran was investing "hundreds of millions of dollars" in Syria including on land and factories.
Danon asked the council members: "Why does Iran continue to recruit extremists to die on Syrian battlefields? Why is Iran building permanent army bases for themselves? The answer is clear: to exacerbate instability in Syria and the region to continue threatening Israel and the free world."
He added that Iran is "also building missile factories in Syria," and said Israel "can no longer distinguish between Iran and Syria."
Danon also referred to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, saying that since it was reached "Iran's military expenditure has only increased."
"In 2014, 17% of Iran's government spending went to its military expenditure. This past year, in 2017, the number ballooned to 22%. That's $23 billion spent on missiles, arms and other weapons of war," Danon exclaimed.
"The Security Council must enforce U.N. Resolution 2231 and ensure that the international community does not permit Iran to finance global terror, build its dangerous forces and expand its military presence in the region," he concluded.
